[Galaxy 3 Android Development] IonAphis:
Stock I5800 Applications Debunked

The list below describes all stock i5800 apks under /system/app. You can see this folder via RootExplorer or FileExplorer or the like, or see them through Titanium Backup, although they might be out of order and with different names (they will use the display name rather than apk name on Titanium).

YES -- Indicates an application can be removed, but please don´t remove them without reading the description.

NO -- Means an application is essential or pretty important for the functionality of your phone.

Some of these descriptions have been based off of Insanity´s I9000 Galaxy S ROM, however all of these have been tested on the I5800 (this is not just a copy paste, rather I based my original understanding of this list in his).

Use at your own risk, I cannot be held responsible if you break your phone.

If your are going to attempt this, first your should have some knowledge of flashing your phone via ODIN, because if you happen to delete something that was important to you, you might need to reflash.

Keep in mind you don´t need to delete apps right off the bat. You can rename them from Application.apk to Application.OLDapk or whatever. This will prevent your phone from recognizing them as applications without you having to fully remove them. When you are sure of your choices and want to free up space, go ahead and delete them.

Some firmware versions will have .odex files with the same name as the .apk. When deleting and apk, delete it´s respective .odex. If you are going to rename an .apk, then rename the .odex as well (aka Application.OLDodex)

AccountAndSyncSettings.apk -- NO, Sync settings, this is required, even if out don´t sync, this is because it syncs more than just calendar and contacts, it is the effective sync to your google account, required for just about anything.

ApplicationsProvider.apk -- NO, required for application installation and uninstall.

audioTuning.apk -- ?, not really sure about this one. I guess this is an automatic sound adjustment according to background noise, however I´ve never seen this into effect. If you´re feeling lucky, you can try removing it, however I´ve never monitored this actually showing up resource managers.

AxT9IME.apk -- YES, This is the stock Samsung keyboard. You can remove it, but even if you have swype, swype doesn´t have all of the keyboard layouts. I´d leave it, to my opinion, this is kind of essential.

BadgeProvider.apk -- NO, Something to do with messaging and email. Removing this causes SMS and email related apps to force close. Even if you manage to keep the program open for long enough without it foce closing, you won´t be able to send messages, they´ll just be stuck on "sending".

Bluetooth.apk -- YES, incorrectly named, this apk actually manages the Bluetooth printing rather than the bluetooth itself. If you have no need for bluetooth printing, this won´t ever be missed or will never bother you in any occasion.

BluetoothOPP.apk -- NO, this apk actually manages file transfer between phones. Remove this and you´ll never be able to transfer files. This actually includes streaming music through Car bluetooth and headsets, since they effectively speaking, file transfers.

BluetoothServices.apk -- NO, provides general framework for Bluetooth. If you´re going to use bluetooth for any reason, this apk is a must. Removing this one breaks all other bluetooth applications.

BluetoothTestMode.apk -- YES, this is activated when you need to test the fidelity of your bluetooth. You can do that by going into the test section by typing the secret code *#*#197328640#*#*. Removing it is possible, however, some BT connections actually test the bluetooth to measure how much data is transfered. This way, it calculates the buffer size it needs to use, and at what quality media can be streamed. Removing it can disrupt communications with those BT terminals or you can experience fade-outs, where while listening to songs, the sound will fade every few seconds, because of inadequate bandwith. (this can occur even with this application left as is, if your BT terminal doesn´t have the auto regulation feature)

Browser.apk -- YES, removing this will make you lose your browsing ability (not internet as a whole). If you have firefox or opera for android, and like those best, you can remove this without any problems.

BuddiesNow.apk -- YES, this is just that widget offered by the TouchWiz launcher. If you don´t use it, remove it.

CallSetting.apk -- NO, do you like to use your phone for... umm calling people? This is kind of essencial, it will allow call setting to be edited. Stuff like call waiting and forwarding will not work if you remove this, as well as other stuff I didn´t have time or willingness to test, as soon as I confirmed dialpad and other things while calling had been disabled.

Camera.apk -- NO, this is the camera application. If you find an alternative one (I don´t think there are any on the market) you could remove it.

CameraFirmware.apk -- NO, this is the actual ROM (if you will) for the camera. Without this, camera.apk is useless.

CertInstaller.apk -- NO, Installs certificates for the apps you install. I assume without this, you cannot give permissions for apps to do things and access certain folders and files. I´m guessing if you don´t have this installed, you couldn´t even install root on your phone. So in short, no.

ClockPackage.apk -- YES, however this controls the alarm clock, stopwatch, world time and timer. There are alternative applications online if you want, but this seems to do the job pretty well and all under the same apk.

Contacts.apk -- NO, this controls the contacts application (the contacts / groups / history / activities tabs). Removing this will make you have to call everyone by physically inputing their number.

ContactsProvider.apk -- NO, this controls contacts sync. Pretty useful if you still don´t use google contacs sync, you should try it. In theory if you don´t use it, you could remove it, but I don´t know what effect it would have on your contacts.

CSC.apk -- NO. This breaks CSC. According to insanity, this can be removed after first successful boot, but if you ever have to hard reset or restore factory settings, this will not allow you to boot successfully.

DataCreate.apk -- NO.

DialerTabActivity.apk -- NO. This controls the dialer. Even if you have all your contacts already stored, you cannot call them without this app.

Divx.apk -- YES. This is some licesing information for the video player. I don´t really watch alot of videos on my phone, but after removing this I´ve never had any problems. If you do remove it, and have problems, post it on the comments.

Dlna.apk -- YES. This is allshare. Never had any use for it, and it shall not be missed.

DownloadProvider.apk -- NO. Handles file downloads and market downloads.

DrmProvider.apk -- NO. In theory, you cannot remove it, it will break your ability to play DRM protected files, aka, Ringtones and SMS notifications. I´ve been in the process of de-DRMing my ringtone files. I would imagine, if you don´t have a reason to play DRM protected files, this could be removed. However keep in mind all DRM protected files will not be able to play. This apk takes up a lot of memory and stays on all the time on the background. It is one of my most hated apks, it serves no function rather than to protect you from copying or editing the stupid samsung ringtones.

DrmUA.apk -- NO, see above.

DualClock.apk -- YES. Dual clock widget. If you don´t need, remove it.

Email.apk -- NO. According to insanity, removing this will break things.Haven´t tried it yet though.

EnhancedGoogleSearchProvider.apk -- YES. This controls that ability to hold the menu button for a second or two and the search menu pop up. I usally keep it.

FactoryTest.apk -- YES. Removed it without any problems. If you have ever run autostarts, you´ll realize how much of a hog this apk really is during some actions.

FlashPlugin.apk -- YES. This allows flash content to be displayed, so even though you can, I don´t recommed it.

FlashSVGPlayer.apk -- YES. As far as I know, this is the player which provides you to view the flash content through the plugin above. Removing this might break your flashplugin.

FMRadio.apk -- YES. Radio player.

Gallery3D.apk -- YES. This is a battery hog. It´s that fancy 3D accelerometer enhanced gallery. If you remove it, you won´t be able to easily access photographs though. If you want a good replacement, I would suggest QuickPic, it does the job, it´s fast and doesn´t hog memory (although its not fancy like the 3D Gallery)

GlobalSearch.apk -- YES. This is the search function on your phone. Remember the Enhanced search this above, well, that actually accesses this to do the search. That can be removed and this will be fine (although you´ll have to access the search feature by the app drawer). But if you remove this, the enhanced search will be useless.

Gmail.apk -- YES. Don´t use gmail? It can be removed, but will break Talk.apk as well.

GmailProvider.apk -- YES. I guess it is tied to gmail.apk. See above.

GoogleApps.apk -- ?. This is didn´t even come installed on my phone, so I guess it´s not that important.

GoogleCheckin.apk -- ? Same as above.

GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk -- YES. Syncs contacts through google. This can be removed, but you won´t be able to sync contacts.

GooglePartnerSetup.apk -- NO.

GoogleSearch.apk -- YES. This is the google search widget you can add onto your launcher desktop.

GoogleSettingsProvider.apk -- NO.

GoogleSubscribedFeedsProvider.apk -- ?. Don´t know, this is not on my phone.

GpsSetup2.apk -- NO. This sets up GPS configurations.

gtalkservice.apk -- YES. You might have this as talk.apk or gtalkservice.apk, although it´s all the same thing, it´s Google Talk.

HTMLViewer.apk -- YES. No side effects were noticed when removing this.

HwCodec.apk -- ?. Don´t have this on my phone.

IcsService.apk -- ?. Don´t have this on my phone.

InfoAlarm.apk -- YES. This is the daily briefing widget. Don´t need it remove it.

InputEventApp.apk -- NO.

Layar-samsung.apk -- YES. Layar. Seems awesome on paper. Never has been of any use in reality.

LbsTestMode.apk -- YES. GPS testing mode. Can be accessed via *#*#197328640#*#*, but not needed per se.

lcdtest.apk -- YES. Removing this will cause your screen to not turn off when you lock your phone. By installing spare parts you can fix this, however if you don´t use spare parts for any other reason, that´s just replacing a passive apk for one that invades your phone on all levels. So I rather just leave it and not worry about it.

LogsProvider.apk -- NO. Lots of things will crash and force close if you do.

Maps.apk -- YES. Google Maps apk. If you don´t use it, remove it, but it is pretty useful, since it has gps navigation as well.

MarketUpdater.apk -- NO. Remove this and when the market gets updated you won´t be able to access it.

MediaProvider.apk -- NO. Needed to access media files and ringtones.

MediaUploader.apk -- YES. This uploads pictures to picassa (facebook as well?). If you don´t need it, remove it.

Memo.apk -- YES. Remove it and you won´t be able to write memos though.

Mms.apk -- NO. This controls MMS sending and recieving on the phone.

MobileTrackerEngineTwo.apk -- YES. This app and the next control the tracker ability on your phone. What this does is if you lose your phone you can use this to track it down and find it. If it gets stolen, you can use this to lead the cops to the thief. Although this is an awesome idea, if you don´t live in a perfect world, it would be wiser not to go after the guy who stole your phone in case he decides to, hum..., go kill you afterwards... Besides, I live in Argentina, and the cops cannot be trusted to do this kind of job... they´ll tell you they can´t do anything. These things stay on memory all the time and really consume battery, so if you don´t care about this feature and really just take care of your stuff, you´ll not be needing these two apps.

MobileTrackerUI.apk -- YES. See Above. I forgot to mention though an extra feature this offers though. If you have these 2 apks installed, you have the samsung apps and singin (you´ll see them later further down), you can use another apk called wipereciever.apk to remotely wipe all the data on your phone, in case you are very privacy concious. However, removing any of these 2 apks, removing samsung apps and not setting up a samsung apps account before your phone gets stolen, this feature becomes disabled. Really in my opinion, its too much stuff to be worried about, and my phone doesn´t contain any nuclear launch codes. So I rely on my lock screen password to protect my data. (Most thieves don´t have the knowhow to crack the lockscreen protection and access the info inside the phone. At most they´ll get bored and might find the info on how to flash a new ROM or reset to factory settings, where your info will be deleted and your privacy sensitive stuff with it).

MtpApplication.apk -- YES. Required to sync with Kies. Do you flash your ROMs rather than update through Kies, this is useless to you then. (Updating through Kies is the equivalent of upgrading from XP to windows 7. It does the job, but it never works as well as installing from scratch.)

MusicPlayer.apk -- YES. This is the music player. If you remove this, you can still preview sounds and stuff through the SoundPlayer.apk. This can be effectively replace by PowerAMP and Winamp. In fact, if you have a stable music player alternative installed, I would recommend you delete this, since it could cause clashes and you might even get both players playing different songs at the same time via Bluetooth.

MyFiles.apk -- YES. This is the default file viewer installed by Samsung. If you use RootExplorer, this is kind of pointless. However, I sometime do things on the go and need to access things fast. I usually use this for everyday use and leave RootExplorer just to do alterations such as what we are doing in this list, so as to not delete important things by accident.

NetworkLocation.apk -- YES. This is the semi-accurate GPS simulation. It uses Cellphone Cell information to estimate your location, rather than using the battery hog GPS antenna. If you remove this, things like automatic weather location will be broken (you´ll have to input your location manually). I usually leave this on, because since it uses the very GSM network used by the phone, it seems like hitting two birds with one stone. Using the real GPS will force you to have two antennas working together. This wastes a lot of battery, and really most of the time the network location does a pretty good job of narrowing down your location. If you use GPS A LOT, I recommed just buying one of those TomToms or Garmin GPS, it has better maps, better accuracy and the very device is optimized to use only the GPS antenna, therefore wasting less battery, and not wasting your phone battery life.

OtaProvisioningService.apk -- NO. According to insanity, this is required. However see wssyncmlnps.apk to get more of an idea.

PackageInstaller.apk -- NO.

Personalization.apk -- NO.

Phone.apk -- NO. Remove this and you won´t have the dialer application. Even though your phone will theoretically work, you just won´t be able to dial out or view missed calls and stuff.

PhoneCrashNotifier.apk -- ?. Don´t know, my phone doesn´t have this.

PhoneErrService.apk -- NO.

Phone_Util.apk -- NO.

PicoTts.apk -- YES. This is part of the text to speech (not speech to text). If you´re blind, this is kind of important, because the phone will read via a a robotic voice things to you. This is also part of the Google GPS application where it will tell you "turn left" "keep right". If you remove this, GPS navigation will work, you just won´t have someone talking to you. If you decide to remove this, remove TtsService.apk as well.

Preconfig.apk -- NO.

RilFactoryApp.apk -- ?. The galaxy 3 seems to be the only phone in the world that has this. Nowhere I have seen is this apk mentioned. I have no idea what this does.

SamsungApps.apk -- YES. Samsung apps, if you remove this, you can remove signin.apk as well. If you remove this, and you manage your music and have apps via Kies, they might not work, however Kies will still connect (if you want to update firmware via Kies). By removing this, your samsung and touchwiz widgets will still work.

SamsungWidget_CalendarClock.apk -- YES. Calendar clock widget.

SamsungWidget_FeedAndUpdate.apk -- YES. Feeds and Updates widget.

SamsungWidget_StockClock.apk -- YES. Stock clock widget.

SamsungWidget_WeatherClock.apk -- YES. Weather clock widget.

SecDownloadProvider.apk -- NO. I believe this has to do with the maket, so I´d just leave it alone.

serviceModeApp.apk -- NO. Required for secret codes and service tasks, such as those accessed by secret codes.

Settings.apk -- NO. Isn´t settings explicit enough?

SettingsProvider.apk -- NO. Some Carriers will send you settings via sms or internal message. This is mostly for those people who don´t really know how to configure their phone (anyone not reading XDA :D). Although it seems banal, it could be useful at some point, and some people have reported things force closing because of this

SetupWizard.apk -- NO. In theory can be deleted after first successful boot. However this could cause problems if you need to factory reset

shutdown.apk -- NO. Tells you your battery is low and manages shutdown notifications.

signin.apk -- YES. See SamsungApps.apk

SisoDrmProvider.apk -- NO. Has to do with the DRM. If you successfully manage to remove DRMUA and DRMService, maybe this can be removed as well. Don´t know, haven´t been able to rid my phone from drm still.

SnsAccount.apk -- YES. Does the feeds sync with facebook and twitter. Without this, you won´t be informed of new tweets of your friends saying "OMG! I´m at the toilet reading cosmo magazine. LOLZ".

SnsProvider.apk -- YES. See above.

SoundPlayer.apk -- YES. This, not to be confused with MusicPlayer.apk plays sounds and previews ringtones. Even though it can be removed, you´ll be pretty limited if you do, since it works a bit faster and to the point than MusicPlayer. It doesn´t genera playlist, history and has no visualization. It just plain to the point plays sounds. Even if you have Winamp, PowerAMP, cubed or whatever I recommend keeping this.

Stk.apk -- YES. You know those annoying menus your carrier offers you, you know, to inform you about your hororscope (no I didn´t misspell it), roaming information or traffic information, making you send a message so they can send you the info back? This is the menu apk for that. Don´t want to download your carrier (payed) games or apps telling you bad jokes? Delete this.

Street.apk -- YES. Streetview for Google Maps. Removing it will not break google maps, but you won´t get to view street pictures.

Swype.apk -- YES. Swype keyboard, and awesome alternative to samsung´s. It does a good job at predicting text, but not essential if you like to manually type all words out.

syncmldm.apk -- YES. Device Management. I read something somewhere but don´t really remember what it was. I deleted this accidentally while trying to delete syncmlds.apk but nothing has broken yet...

syncmlds.apk -- YES. This has to do with the Synchronize page options in the settings menu. If you don´t use it, it has no meaning in your life.

Talk.apk -- YES. Google Talk. There was some chatter about removing this breaking Gmail or the Market. As far as I´ve read, this can be removed, although I still haven´t gotten around to trying it out.

TalkProvider.apk -- YES. See above.

TelephonyProvider.apk -- NO.

thinkdroid.apk -- YES. This is the mobile version of a microsoft office clone. Removing this will not let you open .doc or .xls or .pps on your phone.

TouchWiz30Launcher.apk -- NO. Even though if you use Zeam or LauncherPro or GoLauncher, removing this is kind of dangerous. Let me explain. A while ago when I was a virgin at ODIN flashing and new to the phone, i deleted this because I was using LauncherPRO. I had also deleted something that made my phone force close all the time. I didn´t trust flashing yet, and in my haste, I decided to restore factory settings. The thing is, when you do that, it deletes all non stock apps and reconfigures the phone to use stock apps. When I that, even though the phone booted, I couldn´t access anything, because launchers also control the appdrawer. My phone was literally blank, although if was working. The problem is, if you factory reset, the settings that control your USB connection as MODEM or PDA go back to its original settings. As mine did. So I couldn´t get to anywhere on my phone and couldn´t get my computer to recognize the phone. Until I flashed it via Odin (after a 7 hour desperation overnight, and finding some miracle Samsung USB x64 drivers for mobile phones on a forum) the phone was in effect soft bricked.

If you remove anything from this list and have problems, you can factory reset or prepare you contacts and apps for a flashing via ODIN. If you delete however, you won´t even be able to prepare yourself or backup anything. I wish this upon no one, so I advise keeping this, just to be on the safe side.

TouchWizCalculator.apk -- YES. Calculator app, although can be removed, it´s pretty cool and functional.

TouchWizCalendar.apk -- YES. Calendar app, although can be removed, it´s pretty cool and functional.

TouchWizCalendarProvider.apk -- NO. This has something to do with calendar sync and seems to be the connection between the calendar app and the phone´s internal calendar and date settings.

TtsService.apk -- YES. See PicoTts.apk

TwWallpaperChooser.apk -- YES. Wallpaper Chooser. If you have 3DGallery or QuickPic installed, you can use those to set wallpaper, even though there are some wallpapers (internal to this apk) you won´t get.

UNAService.apk -- ?. I have no idea what this is, and so doesn´t insanity.

UserDictionaryProvider.apk -- YES. You know when you add new words, like names and nicknames to your keyboard prediction? This is where those are kept. Delete this and you´ll have to write like the English Academy of Words wants you to write. LOLZ and WTF won´t be recognized as words and you´ll have to write them out everytime you write them, rather than it being available to you via prediction.

Vending.apk -- NO. Part of the Android Market. Actually this IS the Market.

VideoPlayer.apk -- YES. Video player. Do as you wish.

VoiceDialer.apk -- YES. Allows you to dial by speaking someone´s name. Most people´s names when I say them, tend to return something entirely different from what I was looking for. Sometimes though, it surprises. For some reason this sometimes doesn´t work if you don´t have mobile internet activated, making me believe this actually sends via internet the recording, and an algorith somewhere in the Google empire sends the decodification back... Very ineffective.

VoiceRecorder.apk -- YES. Allows you to record your voice. Some people complain the quality is too low, however I use this as a notepad, rather than writing my to-do list, I speak them. Much faster and much easier. Don´t see why something such as this would need audiophile levels of quality.

VpnServices.apk -- YES. VPN for Android. Perhaps gMote or applications that allow you to control your phone via PC desktop might require this. I don´t , so I delete it, and it doesn´t break anything.

wipereceiver.apk -- YES. Remember mobile tracker? This is the apk that lets you wipe your data remotely.

WlanTest.apk -- YES. Tests wireless settings, via the same test menu mentioned on the above test apks. Required for OTA updates.

WriteandGo.apk -- YES. Write and Go application.

wssomacp.apk -- NO. Required for SMS messaging.

wssyncmlnps.apk -- YES. This is Over The Air Programming. What this does is if your provider decides it has a better way to configure your device or alterations to do to improve something, they´ll send you a message telling to dial such and such number. Your phone will go into download mode and somethings will be updated. My carrier never has done such things, and really I trust the guys from XDA to configure my phone way better than my carrier. I usually remove this.

YouTube.apk -- YES. Since android has limited flash support, this application allows you to take the full youtube experience, rather than having to access youtube through the browser. Delete it if you don´t watch videos.